France is prepared to give Brazil vital hi-tech codes for its Rafale fighter jets if the South American nation buys them, leaked US diplomatic cables published by Le Monde newspaper on Sunday.

By selling the Rafale, which has yet to clinch a single overseas buyer, France "hopes to distance the Americans' F/A-18 Super Hornet and the Swedes' Gripen," according to Le Monde's translation of the WikiLeaks cable dated November 2009.

"The French have since the beginning guaranteed the Brazilians that they would deliver the Rafale's computer codes which are the digital heart of the plane, a gesture that other competitors have been reluctant to match," the daily said.

"When (Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva) Lula complained to (French President Nicolas) Sarkozy about the 'absurd price' of the Rafales, at 80 million dollars each, the French President sent him, according to foreign ministry sources, a personal letter stressing that France was prepared to offer a 'transfer without restrictions' of technological information," it said.

The deal for 36 fighter planes is estimated to be worth between four and seven billion dollars, depending on details of armaments, maintenance and peripheral industrial involvement.

"If the Rafale sale goes through, (manufacturer) Dassault might have to ask the United States for export control licences for the parts of the plane that are built with American technology," the cable said.

In November, Dassault's head in Brazil, Jean-Marc Merialdo, told AFP that all the Rafale's technology belonged to France.

This is not the case for Saab's Gripen, or for the F-18, both of which need the US Senate's green-light, Merialdo said.

The leaked US cable cited military sources in Brasilia as saying that Brazil "wants not only to buy the Rafale but to build the plane on its own territory and eventually sell it throughout Latin America towards 2030."

France has repeatedly expressed optimism that it is about to clinch the deal, but Brazil has yet to decide on which company will update its air force.

earlier related report
Brazil favored US in fighter deal: cable
Brasilia (AFP) Dec 5, 2010 - Brazil leaned in July towards a US bid on a multi-billion-dollar tender for new fighter jets but wanted to gain new technology allowing it to one day make its own, a leaked cable said Sunday.

Brazil is believed to favor either France's Dassault or Sweden's Saab in a four to 10 billion dollar deal to buy 36 fighter jets in order to upgrade the rising power's military forces.

But a US diplomatic cable from July 31, 2009 describes Brazil's Air Force commander Juniti Saito as telling the US ambassador that it preferred a competing long-shot offer from the US Boeing for 36 F/A-18 Super Hornets.

"(Saito) said that there was no question from a technical point of view that the (F/A-18) was the superior aircraft," said the embassy cable, one of 250,000 acquired by the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks.

"'We have been flying US equipment for decades,' he said. 'We know that it is dependable and that maintenance is simple and cost-effective...'

"It is the best decision, he said, and the French can't complain as they just signed a USD 14 billion deal with Brazil (for submarines and helicopters)," the cable said.

"Saito stressed, however, that the question regarding (US) commitment to technology transfer remains 'a significant political barrier' that is extremely important to overcome."

Brazil is upgrading its military forces and struck a 12-billion-dollar deal in 2008 to buy five French-made submarines, one of which it will convert to run on nuclear energy, as well as 50 French transport helicopters.

In June of this year Brazil penned a deal with Italy to manufacture 2,044 armored troop vehicles in Brazil over the next two decades, and Italy and Britain are competing to supply Brazil with navy patrol ships.

Dassault, with its Rafale fighter, and Saab, with its Gripen NG aircraft, have jockeyed to offer Brazil the kind of technology transfer that could one day allow it to make and export its own jets, but Brazil has yet to make a final decision on the deal.